Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-12-17

Barton "Growler' admits "there is
no law compelling the Consolidation
company to pay their employees more
than SS cents per day" That is
settled.
He is not happy, however, when
he says "the law of necessity compels
the men to work for such wages" for
he ought to know that in a free gov
ernment of free people there is not
nor can be such law. To clinch
his proposition he adds:
And brother, you know it, and our opin
ion is, before you'd work for sS cents per day
you would call on the county for aid.
We beg "Growler's" pardon. We
don't "know it, because we have
worked hundreds and hundreds of
days for less than SS cents, for people,
too, who were rroliting by that
labor, and if he wants to learn who
were our employers we can show
him Il list of brethren that would ap-
pail a heart less pure and certainly
less sensitive to scenes of human woe
than his.
But here he goes again:
Let me ask you question. fyou had 500
men to whom you were paying SO cents per
day, and from whose labor you We're de
irving profit of 81 80 per day, knowing that
your employees eked out a mcagre existence,
while you lived in luxury from the profit of
their labor, would you, under those circum-
stances, ever expect to go to Heaven? Or
would you. in your own secret heart, expect
your fellow-mcn to point to you with pride
as an honest and conscientious man?
Perhaps like many other capitalists
who have risen from poverty to wealth
we might forget that heaven had
anything to do with it. The rich
man, scripturaIly speaking, is to
have a pretty hard time of it in the
general iivide at the last day, in
which anticipation the people who
"eke out a miserable existence" the
S8-cent crowd, might well sing
already
o, what are all our suflerings here? otc.
Only about three weeks ago
Frostburg minister emphasized the
proposition that cup there men are
to be measured and rewarded, not by
their success but by their ld5Or
here"
But, seriously, in reply to "Growl-
er's' question, "under those circum,
stances" we do not know, nor can we
guess what we would ''expect" as to
our allotment in the future state Of
being. We only know that many
enemies of capital are trying to own
the object Of their antagonism. We
see some who, leaving the narrow road
to get on the broad highway, doing
their utmost to get in position to
sing to their whilom oppressors-
This is the way | long have sought,
And mOurncd because found ii not.
The same speculation applies to
the ''secret heart" Some writer as
serts that ''every heart knoweth its
own bitterness "a knowledge evl-
IDENTIFY incommunicable for personal
and prudential reasons. The fact is,
sits own bitterness" is all it ought to
know in the way Of gall and worms
wood. "Growler's" latter inquiry,
also touching our expectations in a
hypothetical case, is, therefore, too
much for us. The oppressed has so
often become al oppressor, the serf
IL sovereign, the slave u tyrant and
the minion II boss, that we cannot
imagine what would be the effect of
Il metamorphosis so complete upon
the hitherto stainless nature and dis
position of the JOURNAL.
VERY many of our people are dis
appointed in the failure of the COM
missioners to elect Bernard Stern, of
this place, president of the board.
Having largely distanced all COM
petitors and all colleagues in the
poll, and having all the qualifications
for ii presiding officer, it had been ac-
cepted us almost certain that the
great popular preference which car
ried him into the board would nat
urally lift him into its presidency.
But other considerations prevailed,
perhaps for the best. At amy rate,
speaking for Mr.. Stern without his
knowledge, the JOURNAL AYERS that
he will be found equally useful on the
floor in the conscientious discharge of
duties such as he believes he owes
to the people.